Young Water Professionals – Fredrick Dionisio (Saipan, CNMI)

Fredrick Dionisio is a young man working for the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). As a Trades Specialist at CUC he is motivated to ensure safe water, equal access and constant supply to the communities who need it; Fredrick feels he and his colleagues do vital work towards providing this essential public service.

The people of the Northern Mariana Islands experience frequent severe storms, and in Fredrick’s view this has taught his people to prioritise water security and water treatment. “For our indigenous people, water is crucial for our everyday living; if given a choice, having access to water is more important than having access to power.”

Fredrick appreciates the extra opportunities that were recently presented as a result of his selection to the Young Water Professional (YWP) program at the 2025 Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA) Conference. “Networking and meeting new people and seeing a new environment… a few of the YWP’s, including myself, had the opportunity to present to the honourable distinguished ministers during their ministerial forum.”

A gathering of like minds such as the YWP program enables passionate and dedicated youths working in the water sector to share their experience with others, to become exposed to different ways of working in the Pacific, and to provide a space for them to bring fresh ideas to their work.

“We shared the power of digital storytelling and how we could use technology to create videos, pictures and digital stories to tell the real story of water.” Fredrick explains.

“Digital storytelling is our new canoe… instead of the traditional paddling between islands to tell our stories, we can use digital storytelling to tell our story faster and further, across islands and oceans and onto the world stage.”

Fredrick and his peers were given an opportunity to present this outlook to senior leaders gathered for PWWA; that digital media content can be used to share more about the impacts of climate change within daily conversations throughout the Pacific. In particular, to share more of the necessary conversations around impact on water resources so vital to the cultural and physical wellbeing of islanders.

“There are risks when it comes to addressing climate change and its relation to water issues,” says Fredrick. “Water resilience and security is threatened by climate change, driving droughts, floods and saltwater intrusions. So, failing to address these risks puts all of our access to water and our livelihood at stake.”

For his contributions during PWWA, Fredrick was awarded the 2025 YWP of the year, as outlined in this post from the PWWA – https://pwwa.ws/fredrick-dionisio-named-2025-pacific-young-water-professional-of-the-year

The list of attendees and organisers of the Young Water Professional workshop at 2025 PWWA Conference is as follows: